A South Korean man who worked at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor unit and more recently at a pig farm has defected to the North by walking across the heavily mined border, the communist state’s media said on Tuesday. [Reuters]
Something tells me he’ll be dreaming of those little piggies soon enough.
“He is beside himself with joy for having accomplished this heroic deed,” the North’s KCNA news agency said. It identified the defector as Kang Dong-rim, 30.
“He is now under the warm care of a relevant organ,” KCNA said.
No inappropriate snickering, please. This is a family site.
Remarkably, Kang crossed the world’s most heavily mined and fortified border without exploding or getting himself shot by either side. So really, this is a case of natural selection on two separate, mutually contradictory levels. So what was Kang’s motive?
The South Korean military statement said Kang had formerly served in an army division near where the fence was found cut and he has been on a police wanted list following his alleged involvement in an assault case in September. [AP]
The AP notes that at least two other South Koreans have attempted to defect North in recent years, sadly, none of them members of Hanchongryon.
Previously, I’ve written about North Korea’s growing drug problem. The Chosun Ilbo’s “On the Border” even showed video of a North Korean in delicto flagrante while smuggling dope across the Yalu River in his mouth. In keeping with the ancient economic rule that supply chases demand, North Korean meth cooks have found that Chinese customers can pay more than most North Koreans:
Chinese police is [sic] having a hard time with philopon trade in the border area near Tumen River.
According to a source from Chinese police on October 5, Chinese police confiscate 2-3 kg of philopon a day. Smuggling of philopon has increased since the beginning of September when the rainy season ended.
The source stated that philopon seems to be traded by regular residents of North Korea. These dealers secretly smuggle philopon out to China in close communication with Chinese smugglers and it is difficult to arrest them. This has been a headache for the Chinese police. [Open News]
I don’t really see an up side to meth addiction, though I’m mindful that North Korea won’t change until its society breaks down further. Similarly, I’m untroubled by China’s exploitation of North Korea becoming just a bit less one-sided.
What really intrigues me is this question: how can two countries that can’t stop the flow of drugs across their shared border expect to stop the flow of weapons in the opposite direction?
The word from inside North Korea is that it fell far short of its stated goals, and that the people are still starving in the dark. The sum total appears to be that people did a lot of work that ultimately accomplished only short-term gains in “core” areas of the country:
At the end of this September, a high level source stated that according to North Korea it hit a new record of agricultural production from the 150-day battle, which ended on September 20. In fact, it failed to achieve 70% of the average production. It is estimated that crop harvested this year would not reach 60% of that last year.
Ji Young-Il, a head of department of social science at Chosun University, published an article in ‘Professor Ji Young Il’s Monthly Economic Review’ called ‘The 150-day Battle and Prospects for Building an Economically Powerful Nation.’ He claimed that during the battle North Korea accomplished 130% of its goal in machinery industry and produced hundreds of millions Kilowatt more energy than last year. He also said that coal production grew by 150%, light industry by 157.1% and the amount of goods transported by railway increased by 1 million ton.
However, a source reported that North Korea has achieved less than 70% of its goals in all industries above. The fundamental reason was shortage of electric power, the source said. North Korea has excessively exported coal, the key ingredient for thermal power plants. It has led to massive disruption in domestic electric production as well as in machinery and railway industries which consume a lot of energy. Kim Jong-Il ordered prohibition on coal exports on August 12. After the order the state of electric power in North Korea has been improved, the source informed. [Open Radio]
In areas along North Korea’s western corridor to China, sources inside North Korea report improvements in the regularity of train schedules and the supply of electricity.
Otherwise, the Daily NK’s sources report that the effect of the “battle” was to further demoralize the population and raise a lot of grumbling. Those last two links are an interview with just one North Korean, but they sound like the honest observations of an ordinary person. The “150-day battle” has been mostly a blip to Korea-watchers, but I suspect that it’s been a very big deal to most North Koreans.
Related: The forced labor will continue until morale improves — here’s more on the appearance of those anti-government leaflets in Kwaksan I’d blogged about here. Interestingly, Kwaksan lies along the western corridor between Sinuiju and Pyongyang.
Hmmm. I wonder if we’ve seen some of those types around here?
Writer Jang Shin-Jung (former employee of the United Front Department), a North Korean refugee, testified that North Korea’s United Front Department has adopted a new propaganda strategy against South Korea by operating a new internet commenting team to reflect South Korea’s change in media culture. [....]
Jang conjectured that about 30 team members at contact station 101 were cultural experts of South Korea. He described their proficiency in the latest slangs as proficient while posting among the South Korean online community. It was to the point that when Jang knocked to enter the team’s office, the reply would be in South Korean slang.
The teams post on contentious South Korean societal issues on varieties of well-known portal sites, such as Daum and Naver. They also comment on these issues to amplify criticisms. The goal is the same as the number 1 goal of all media propaganda strategies against South Korea, to increase the power of pro-North Korean factions within South Korea. Jang agreed, saying “I saw psychological warfare such as posts insisting that North Korean nuclear weapons are in reality beneficial for South Korea. [Open News]
If this is true, and it seems plausible to me, it would be a completely legitimate tactic. Bring it on, just bring on some counterspeech to correct the record. In fact, I wish our government would train a few bloggers to read, write, and post in Chinese, Pashto, Arabic, and German to argue against all of the urban myths that pass for serious political discourse in what the dumbest among us sometimes refer to as a Global Village.
The problem with this, of course, is that for North Korea, speech is warfare by other means, not a way for people to find their own way to a better life. Stated differently, it’s not a two-way street:
As foreign information flows into its society in the form of smuggled goods from China and interaction with other states, the North Korean authorities have once again emphasized that people should reject capitalist culture and stick with the North Korean system.
Minju Chosun (Democratic North Korea), a publication by North Korea’s cabinet, claimed on Saturday in a commentary piece, “We should never be attracted by the scent of capitalism,” and that, “The imperialists are penetrating us with all kinds of rotten bourgeois lifestyles, using the nature of our sensitive young generation on a massive scale. [Daily NK]
I wonder if it ever occurred to the North Koreans that if their propaganda were less snicker-inducing, literally dozens of adolescent losers in this country might write pro-North Korean blog comments, if only as a vehicle to spite their parents.
It went on to claim that in the former Socialist Bloc the young generation had been rendered psychologically disabled by the touch of capitalism.
Minju Chosun emphasized, “Capitalist elements including America continue to viciously blow a sweet capitalist scent into our country in order to devastate our political and ideological position. Therefore, it is very important work to educate our young so they will not be dazzled by that capitalist wind and to save their fate and guarantee the bright future of the nation.
The publication urged, “Once they are paralyzed by the sweet capitalist wind, they will fall into corruption, ignore the revolution and focus on individual pleasures, so we have to be awake to the enemies’ strategy.
In September, Rodong Shinmun also emphasized the ideology of the younger generations in an editorial. It asserted that harboring any illusion about capitalism is the same as drinking poison, and that blocking the capitalist wind is more important than war with guns.
Surely a country with our ability to put technology into the hands of ordinary people can find a way to give internet access to the North Korean people, though I think the propaganda may overstate the power of free speech. Its reference to the danger of “individual pleasures” brings to mind an army of 1.2 million suddenly rendered incapable of operating any weapon requiring the use of both hands.
The Voice of America interviews Nancy Heiken, producer of the documentary Kimjongilia, about North Korea’s concentration camps. You can see a short video clip here. Personally, however, I’d say the film’s own site does a better job of conveying its artistic theme — contrasting the eerily beautiful illusions of the state against the terrible realities beyond the gauzy backdrops. I’m looking forward to having a chance to see this.
[10/27: Here's an update on that 80 year-old POW.]
The latest reports coming from northeastern China emphasize China’s ongoing disregard for the lives of North Korean refugees, and for the pleas of the South Korean government. They also raise questions about President Lee’s sincerity about shifting to a more compassionate policy toward North Korean refugees.
Last week, it was reported that two family members of an escaped South Korean prisoner of war found their way to the South Korean consulate in Shenyang, where the consular staff told them that there was no room for them in the consulate and instead put them up in a nearby guesthouse — stop me if you’ve heard this somewhere before — where the Chinese police promptly found them (link in Korean) arrested them, and trussed them up for the long trip back to the firing squad or Camp 12. The Donga Ilbo gives us a few more details in English here.
And there is more. Another report (also in Korean) has it that another South Korean POW, age 80, managed to escape North Korea but fell ill and was caught by the Chinese police. He’s now in a hospital awaiting deportation to North Korea, where I doubt he’d like long regardless of the outcome chosen for him. The South Koreans says they’re trying to negotiate for his freedom, but that the Chinese aren’t listening.
If there is any good in this, it’s the fact that this news has become a minor scandal in South Korea. There’s little question that something is seriously rotten in the South Korean consulate in Shenyang. Recall the way the consulate rudely turned away escaped South Korean POW Choi Uk-Il in 2007. Back in 2006, three North Korean refugees seemed so certain the South Koreans would betray them that they jumped over the wall of the consulate into the adjacent U.S. Consulate, which hasn’t distinguished itself for representing American values abroad, either.
What really ought to enrage South Koreans, however, is that almost exactly the same thing happened just three years ago. Then, nine family members of prisoners of war were turned away from the consulate and put up in a private guest house, where the Chinese caught them and sent them back to face a firing squad in North Korea. It’s a consistent enough pattern to suggest reckless disregard at the very least, and possibly a deliberate wink-and-nod relationship with the ChiComs. And it would be a greater scandal yet if President Lee, who claims to be more concerned about human rights than his predecessors, allows this to continue without firing the Consul and anyone else who played a part in this.
At times like this, I can only say, thank God for Ban Ki Moon, the Nobel Committee, and the Human Rights Industry. Why, without the awesome moral authority and effectiveness of international institutions like these, terrible atrocities could go on for years unchecked. In this orderly new age in which some of us are blessed to live, the only duty that devolves on the rest of us is to sit here in the warm and comfort of our homes, gnaw on the fat-free organic snack of our choice, and admonish the ragged vagabonds, who are still unchurched in teachings of our faith, not to take matters into their own hands.
Justice for North Korea (JFNK) is a small, activism-oriented group lead by South Korean pastor, Peter Chung. It has Christian and non-Christian members from both Koreas and a handful of other countries.
In May 2007, they started a 444-day campaign leading up to the Beijing Olympics in August 2008. Every weekday there was a “one-person” demonstration in front of the Chinese consulate in Myeongdong. And every Saturday half a dozen to a dozen people gathered in Insadong for a “street performance,” to pass out fliers, and get the message out about China’s role in exacerbating and perpetuating the North Korean crisis.
I joined the Saturday Insadong campaign in December 2007. It became the high-point of my week, though I must admit, I sometimes questioned how much of an effect we really were having. It’s very hard to measure (this a whole ‘nother topic), so I often had to remind myself to take the long-term view. We were just one small part of a movement, the results of which might not be seen soon, but which needed to be waged nonetheless.
We did get some media coverage mind you. Perhaps most notably appearing in the National Geographic piece (see third-to-last photo) on the underground railroad in China. And we appeared briefly as background video accompanying a report on CNN (the video in this link doesn’t appear to work anymore) about the Olympic Torch protests in April 2008. At least those are two examples from the Western media that come to mind.
Here are some photos from Insadong in early 2008. Â Glancing again at these photos, I’m reminded that Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea and Dr. Norbert Vollertsen were stalwarts of the campaign.
In May of this year we finally restarted our Saturday Insadong campaign. Now the focus is more directly on North Korea, but we still continue to talk about China’s role, of course. We also have discovered that if we don’t walk up and down the street, if we don’t chant our slogans, etc., but instead, if we quietly and in one place do our “street performance,” we seem to be more effective reaching people. They aren’t put off by our chanting. They have time to stop and read our posters (on topics including orphans, a map of the political prison camps, the modern underground railroad, sexually trafficked women, and China shirking its international agreements on refugees). And, as ever, they’re very curious as to why that person over there has a hood over his/her head and is all tied up with ropes. One objective thing I can point to to say we’re more effective now is that donations have more than doubled after the switch. (Money raised goes to support work on the underground railroad; possibly more on that later.)Â As before, we hand out 1000+ Korean fliers most weeks, as well as some in English, Chinese, and now Japanese.
Above are a couple photos; another photo and more details about the weekly “street performance” and JFNK in general appear in this nice article in the JoongAng Daily from last month.
For anyone interested in taking part in the Insadong campaign every Saturday 3-5 p.m., there is no proper website for JFNK yet but you can find contact info here.
Also, JFNK is hosting a free screening of Crossing at an art gallery near Hapjeong Station (lines 2 & 6) in Seoul next Saturday night, Oct. 31st, at 8 p.m. (be sure to take a copy of the directions with you when you go!)
The following Saturday, instead of the weekly Insadong campaign, JFNK will be one of several organizations participating in the “Vote With Your Feet” march to support the people of North Korea. Plan to meet at City Hall Station, exit 2, at 1 p.m. on November 7th. The march will be to Seoul Station, where there will be speakers — some of whom risked their lives when they voted with their feet and made the perilous journey to South Korea.
Finally, I want to share a video a friend made of our Insadong campaign a few weeks ago. Alas, our setup that week was a little different than usual due to a festival taking place in our usual spot, and we were short a few hands that day. Also, I think he would want you to know that he managed to make this video using only the simple software included in Windows and an old digital camera serving as his camcorder. So I can’t wait to see what he can do on other projects after he gets himself a proper camcorder and software in the next several weeks. I’m having problems embedding the video, but for now, here’s a link to his video.
“The nine North Koreans left the Danish embassy this morning and they are now at Noi Bai International Airport checking in before flying to Singapore and then Seoul,” the Vietnamese diplomatic source told AFP, asking not to be named. [....]
The nine entered the Danish compound on September 24 hoping to reach South Korea, Kim Sang-Hun, an activist who said his group helped them reach the embassy, told AFP earlier. [AFP]
That must be the same Kim Sang Hun whom I met in Washington just two weeks ago. Incidentally, I still haven’t found the Jeung-San prison, just one vaguely possible site.
Justice for North Korea (JFNK) is a small, activism-oriented group lead by South Korean pastor, Peter Chung. It has Christian and non-Christian members from both Koreas and a handful of other countries.
